


Dawn

by TeamThor



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Bruce & Hulk Interaction, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Fluff and Angst, Hulk Hugs (Marvel), M/M, Poor Thor (Marvel), Protective Bruce Banner, Sad with a Happy Ending, Thor (Marvel) Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 11:22:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18622342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamThor/pseuds/TeamThor
Summary: Thor is back at the compound. Bruce keeps trying to help him, to fix him, and he can't understand why.He's unworthy of a lot of things. And as of right now, he's never felt less worthy of Bruce.





	Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> ENDGAME SPOILERS PEOPLE! No deaths, or big purple grape, just some classic hurt and comfort because I really need to hug Thor you guys  
> Also mild swearing

Bruce supposed it was only a matter of time before something happened. Something else, that is. To his credit, bringing Thor back to the compound had seemed like a good idea at the time. Getting him out of that awful hut in New Asgard, to somewhere surrounded by friends. Family.  
And maybe, some time later, Thor would get better. He'd bounce back to that happy-but-wise thunder god who'd rescued him from Sakaar, and that would be that. 

But, as he knew, the healing process would be long. And painful.  
It was a wonder they'd gotten this far without incident, really. 

His footfalls felt too loud as he walked through the forests near the compound, crunching loudly against twigs and branches. He winced, holding the torch a little tighter in his hand as he followed the smell of ozone through the air. 

Thor had taken off at about 2 in the morning, according to the camera footage. The weather was what tipped Bruce off- somehow, storms of hail, rain, snow, and thunder all occuring within the span of 5 minutes didn't seem all that normal to him.  
Although, these days, what was normal? Half the universe was dead. He was big and green. The only constant he still had was Hulk's voice in the back of his mind pointing out the occasional occurrence. That hadn't left. And if he was being honest, he'd never been more grateful. The seconds of silence that had echoed across his mind after the Snap had sent a cold grip of dread across his lungs. He didn't sleep until a week later when Hulk finally poked back through with a surprisingly timid voice. 

'Hulk not in the fight.' He'd said, the low grumble breaking the uncomfortable night silence. 'Hulk sorry.' 

Bruce had cried, then. Tears of sheer fucking relief that shook his shoulders and sent him collapsing to the bedroom floor because here, here was somebody he hadn't lost. Hulk was okay. He was okay. They'd be okay. 

Their cooperation had certainly made things a lot easier dealing with Thor, too. Because Thor couldn't just walk away from things anymore. Before, if Bruce had tried to poke Thor into coming out of his room, he knew he couldn't open that door if Thor didn't want him to. And Thor really didn't want him to.  
But now he was big. Strong. Strong enough to make Thor listen and hopefully make him better. 

It was about 3 in the morning when he found Thor, according to his watch. The moon hung low in the sky, the night time air still clinging with an iron like grip, refusing to yield it's hold to a dust-covered morning.  
Thor was sitting on a log, staring at the horizon with a burning intensity. Barefoot, still clad in his pyjamas, Bruce caught the tell tale shaking of shoulders beneath the tank top and the splintering of wood where his hands gripped the log. 

Rain still pattered throughout the forests, although it was significantly less torrential than it had been before.  
Thor looked...small. Crumpled, was a better word for it. The regal posture and the rigid cleaning routine that came from a lifetime of royal training had been thrown to the wind some years back, and as much as Bruce liked having a little more of Thor to hold, he missed that part of him.  
He missed the light in Thor's eyes. The every day semblances of care, fussing over outfits and plaiting intricate braids into hair. The small signs that Thor actually gave a shit about himself that Bruce was really starting to miss. 

He cleared his throat, shifting from foot to green foot awkwardly.  
"You're gonna catch a cold if you stay out here." 

"I'm Asgardian." The reply was almost instantaneous, read with a monotone expression, like he was reading lines from a phone book.  
"I don't get sick." 

"Yeah, you do. And you will." Bruce took a tentative step forward, splaying a large hand on Thor's shoulder.  
"Come on. You can watch the sunrise from the compound."

Thor tensed for a moment, staring up at Bruce with the smallest spark of defiance in his eye. Like for a moment, he was back on Sakaar, ready to yell and fight and kick his way out of having to do what needed to be done.  
Bruce would've preferred that to what he got. The sunken shoulders and the small nod of resignation, Thor's tired form following him mutely back through the trees towards somewhere that could never be home to him. 

Bruce held open the door once they got back, the compound empty , or at least it's inhabitants were all asleep by now. 

He spoke with a soft sigh in his voice, watching Thor track muddy footprints across the floor.  
"You've got to stop doing this. People are freaked out enough already, changing weather patterns isn't going t-"

"I know, alright? I know!" Thor snapped, haulting in his path.  
He met Bruce's eyes, and he must've sensed something because his tone dropped to a half hushed whisper, his eyes casted to the floor guiltily.  
"I know. And I'm sorry. Half the time I don't even realise I'm doing it. I have tried to do as you've asked but when I go to sleep I just wake up out there again." 

"It's alright." Bruce replied, limiting his voice to the quiet tones that had been practised and perfected over 5 years of the broken rage that was Thor.  
"We'll get you through this. You just have to keep going. It's all any of us can do." 

Thor paused, lowering his head, the rain soaked strands of hair clouding the mismatched eyes. He was noticeably shivering now, whether it was from the cold or something else, Bruce couldn't say.  
Talks like this had been getting more and more frequent between them, now that Thor couldn't just brush Bruce off and bifrost back to New Asgard. 

Thor shut his eyes against the artificial light of the compound, letting out a harsh breath of air through his nose.  
"Why did you bring me back here? You have all this work to do. The science, and the papers, and just-"  
The deep tones of his voice cracked, and he lifted a sodden hand up to wipe at his face, resting in his hair and clenching hard enough around the blonde locks to hurt.  
"Why do you waste your time on me?" 

"Thor-"

"Because I'm not worth it, Bruce. I'm not. You could've just left me there. You should've just left me there, but you didn't, you never do, and I'm always brought back to this place and I don't understand-"

"Thor, stop." Bruce stood in front of him, taking Thor's face in his hands, a palm resting against each cheek. He tilted his face upwards, towards the light, towards him, trying to get those eyes to look back.  
He felt tears dampen the edge of his thumbs, and for the first time in a while he felt how fragile Thor was beneath his grip.

How far he'd fallen.

Bruce could stay still and offer quiet words of comfort when he felt unworthy of the throne. He could stand by him and support him from the sidelines when he felt unworthy of the Avengers.  
But he'd never felt unworthy of him. Until now. 

"I'm not giving up on you. Do you understand me?" Bruce stared down at Thor, feeling the demigods body tense beneath his hold, and he hates the look on his face, like a frightened animal, but he needed him to understand. He had to understand.  
"I am going to help you, because you're my friend. Because I've lost too many damn people. Because despite everything that's happened, I still care. I still love you, even if you don't." 

Thor's breathing was shaky, his hands remaining in tightly screwed fists at his side. But he didn't pull away.  
He just looked upwards at Bruce, like an equation was written on his forehead that Thor was trying to solve. 

"I'm not giving up on you." He repeated, crushing Thor close to his chest in the tightest hug he could give without flattening him.  
"Never." 

Finally, Thor moved.  
Thor's body relaxed against Bruce's hands, slumping forward against the firm muscle of Bruce. Still soaked from the rain, and now Bruce's dry undershirt was wet, too. But God damnit if that wasn't the warmest thing Bruce had felt in a while. 

They stayed like that for some time. Locked together in an embrace, until Bruce's arms were tingling from numbness and Thor was definitely shaking from cold, now, rather than fun discussions about the death of half the universe. 

Bruce stepped back, trying to ignore the faint whine that Thor would later swear he never made.  
His hands once again rested on Thor's shoulders, regarding him at arm's length with a skeptical gaze. 

"Okay, you're staring at me like I'm a lab sample. What?" Thor brushed Bruce's hands away from his shoulders, although kept a firm hold on one of them, trying to lace his fingers between ones that were far larger than his own.

"You're a mess." Bruce replied, a worn smile crossing his face. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up." 

Thor's hand tightened in his own as Bruce led him towards the living quarters - their living quarters - for what he really hoped would be the last time.  
Steve was probably going to have something to say about the now flooded plant beds and the muddy footprints trodden into the carpet, but for now, Bruce was focusing on the man a few steps behind him. The man who's hand was holding his. The one who didn't think he was allowed to be cared for.  
That was his priority. 

As much as he wanted to stay close to Thor - and he really wanted to stay close to Thor - there were still a few boundaries left.  
He personally felt it was a little unfair that Thor had seen hulk naked and yet refused to allow him into the shower with him, but to an extent, he understood.  
Thor needed time to let people back in. This was the closest Bruce had managed to get to him in a long time - he wasn't about to jeopardize it. Not when things just started to look up. 

Thor didn't leave Bruce alone too long. He ventured from the bathroom, steam billowing behind him, hands running over the clothes Bruce had left out with a sense of pained curiosity. 

"I don't need to be coddled." He began, meeting Bruce's bemused expression with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not a child." 

"True, but your clothes are a) covered in mud, and b) smell like crap. I'd like to cuddle someone who's clean, thank you." 

Thor looked up, holding the soft cotton t shirt in his hand. "You're staying?" He asked, his voice light with surprise. 

"If you'll have me." 

Bruce let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding when Thor's face lifted in a small smile, nodding with an intensity that scattered droplets of water about the room. 

"I'd like that, Bruce. I really would." 

Bruce had had some difficulty finding hulk - sized pyjamas, and didn't even want to imagine what Tony's reaction to that request would be, so the designs had been...basic, to say the least. Comfortable? He hoped so. The merge with hulk had given him some of the best nights of sleep in a long time, and he didn't fancy tossing and turning if he was going to be back in the same bed as Thor again.  
Jesus, it had been a while. The last time they'd shared together was...aboard the Statesman. Before Thanos. Curled up in too many blankets in front of the viewing window, watching flaming supernovas and speckles of stars drift by in a sea of deep, dark blues and greens. Cradled in Thor's arms, being sent to sleep by the gentle rise and fall of his chest.  
On a straight course back to earth with not a thing outside of Loki and Val duelling in the canteen to worry about. 

He was jarred out of his memories, back to the cold reality, by Thor sitting down on the mattress, the small creak of the hinges grabbing his attention. 

"So..." Thor began, toying with the edge of the covers, glancing at Bruce from the corner of his eyes. 

"So..." Bruce agreed, settling back against the headboard, watching the ceiling fan turn above them. 

Thor rubbed at the back of his neck, chuckling quietly to himself. "I'm sorry. This is awkward." 

"It is." Bruce couldn't help but smile back at the sound of Thor chuckling, genuinely chuckling. It was small, but it was a step in the right direction.  
"Right, come on. Let me do your hair for you, and then we can actually sleep in the same bed for once." 

"Do my hair? It's washed. It's done." Thor swept a few locks behind his ears incredulously, although he was already moving to seat himself between Bruce's knees, taking most of the blanket with him. 

"Seriously, when's the last time you took a comb through that thing?" Bruce shook his head, resting his hands against the softness of Thor's waist after briefly ruffling the soaked locks atop of his head. He tilted his head to one side as a familiar grumble resounded in the back of his mind.  
"Hulk thinks you should cut it again. He liked it shorter." 

"Neither you, nor Hulk, have an ounce of style between you." Thor grimaced as Bruce began tackling the more extreme parts of his neglect, claps of thunder outside resounding against forks of lightning whenever Bruce got to a particularly nasty tangle. 

It was taking a while, and chances are it would take a while longer, but Bruce was finally beginning to see some of the old Thor back. The grins were a shadow of what they had been, but, it was something.  
He still had something. 

Bruce glanced at the clock when he was finally done, Thor's hair smooth and soft beneath his calloused fingers. 4:30 AM. 

Well, it wasn't his latest night. Still, he was exhausted, and tried but failed to stifle the yawn that had been building since the forest with the back of his hand.  
As tired as he was, he still broached the next question carefully. The last thing he wanted was to freak Thor out now, when they were so close to ending this perfectly. Or as perfectly as a 4:30 bed time could end. 

"Do you think you can sleep now? Because I'll stay up with you if you can't." Bruce propped himself up on his elbows, watching Thor's face carefully, gauging his response. 

Thor frowned briefly, eyes flitting down to the mattress. After a moment of consideration, he slowly clambered close to Bruce's side, his beard tickling Bruce's chest as he clung tighter.  
"I'll try, for you." 

"Alright. Goodnight, Thor." Bruce made a waving motion with his free hand, the lights dimming slowly until the room was only lit by the approaching light of dawn, filtering through the blinds. 

"Goodnight, Bruce." A few seconds of silence ticked by before Thor spoke again. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Just get better, and we'll call it even, okay?" Bruce leant forward, wrapping an arm around the demigods figure and pulling him close.  
He pressed a kiss against Thor's forehead, the skin still burning with the lightning that thrummed in his veins, and settled back against the pillow, watching as Thor's eyes slipped shut and his frown began to smooth out. 

"Okay." Thor shifted slightly, letting out a sigh of relief, the tension that he hadn't noticed he'd been carrying bleeding out of his shoulders as the warmth of a large, green arm cradled him close. 

The sun, crowning above the horizon, bathed the room in gold.  
And they finally slept.


End file.
